Final Project of Criticism of Literary Works

Asep Setiadi

Blanche in the “It’s only a paper moon”

A streetcar named desire’s Blanche, a woman with harsh past life dreaming to have a better
life, is a controversial and interesting character to analyze. One of her parts in the play which
may be calling for attention from readers is one at the beginning of Scene Seven, when
Blanche is washing herself. She sings a saccharine popular ballad It’s only a paper moon in
the bathroom while outside Stanley and Stella are talking about her Laurel life (p. 106-107).
In spite of its minor part in the play, such questions may appear in readers’ mind as ‘Why did
she sing the song?’ or ‘What does the song mean?”. This paper seeks answers to the
questions by studying the song lyrics and pointing out the relation to Blanche. It is argued
that Blanche DuBois sings the song ‘It’s Only a Paper Moon’ as an act of unconscious
revelation of her concealed life and personality.

‘It’s only a paper moon’

You say it's only a paper moon

Sailing over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn't be make believe if you believed in me

Yes, it’s only a canvas sky

Hanging over a muslin tree
But it wouldn't be make-believe if you believed in me

Without your love it's a honky tonk parade

Without your love it's a melody played in a penny arcade

It's a barnum and bailey world

Just as phony as it can be
But it wouldn’t be make-believe if you believed in me

http://lyrics.wikia.com/wiki/Ella_Fitzgerald:It%27s_Only_A_Paper_Moon

It’s Only a Paper Moon is a song written by Harold Arlen published in 1933, with the lyrics
composed by E. Y. Harburg and Billy Rose (Wikipedia). The song describes a man who is
disillusioned with the world and has finally fallen in love with a woman. No wonder the song
contains his illusion, persuasion and dependence.

In verse one, the character in the song, the disillusioned man, talks about a paper moon
sailing over a cardboard sea. In the early half of 20th century, a paper moon is referred to a
crescent moon-like fixture on which people sit, often at fairs, parties, and carnivals, as if it
lifts to the stars (Starr, 2013). This suggests the paper moon as a vehicle for him to reach the
stars, or dreams. Meanwhile, sea, which is borderless but horizons and is full of challenges
and excitement, is often thought of as the long path of life that one has to go through and
sailing over it means running along the path which is, here, made of cardboard. However,
none of them is real. This part offers a sense of his dream for running a happy life while
escaping the reality – the fact that he has nothing – using the illusion.

In a similar way, neither a canvas sky nor a Barnum and Bailey world, in verses two and four,
is real. Sky is normally thought of as something beautiful and pleasant. Yet, in this context, a
canvas sky, it is made of a piece of cloth. Likewise, Barnum and Bailey is the name of a
circus company that reached its peak success and was very popular around the end of 19th
century and the beginning of 20th. Yet, what happens in a circus are only performances.
However pleasant they are in a circus world, they are done for the sake of entertaining the
audiences and not sincere. Eventually, those objects represent illusion of the man that offers
imaginary bliss.

These parts of the song seem to be a representation of Blanche’s world, illusion. In A

Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche is depicted as a troubled woman who enjoys illusion
throughout the play to also escape reality, her harsh past. Similar to that in the song,
Blanche’s illusion is initially led by love. She got married with Allan Grey, who she thought
of as a perfect man but later she discovered him as a gay. Another illusion came after Allan’s
suicide that Ms. DuBois would be happy if she could find someone who loved and took care
of her. In attempt to make it true, she hid her identity and created other illusions such as
telling others the she was happy and was on vacation to New Orleans, “Yes, Blanche is. She’s
going on a vacation“(p. 146), and not revealing her age, “Of course he – he doesn’t know – I
mean I haven’t informed him – of my real age!” (p. 84). Furthermore, she even stated that she
lived in her illusion, “I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that
to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don't tell truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if
that is sinful, then let me be damned for it!"(p. 127).

In It’s Only a Paper Moon, the character is aware that what he has in mind is a make-believe
world. It is just an illusion about an ideal life he wants to have and perceives it as a truth of
his own. Being a disillusioned man makes him believe in it more than does he in the reality.
Therefore, he expects the woman he is falling in love with to believe in him, as well as in it,
so they both can live their own lives with their own truth. He tries to persuade her, ‘but it
wouldn’t be make-believe if you believed in me’, that there will be no more illusion but their
reality if she did.

The disillusioned man in the song also represents Blanche in terms of the fact that they both
expect others to believe in them. In the case of Blanche, she tries to maintain her illusory
world by disguising her identity, including her past, and not telling the truth. Blanche’s
dishonesty has been seen from her acts at the beginning of the play when she stole a glass of
beer at Stella’s house and told Stella that “one’s my limit” (p. 11) of beer a day. Then, she
makes other attempts to hide her reality such as telling that she is taking a leave from the
school while she has actually been fired “he suggested I take a leave of absence” (p. 11), not
revealing her age and avoiding bright lights “I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I
can a rude remark or a vulgar action” (p. 54). All she did are to make others believe in her
make-believe world, her illusion.

In verses three, the man is imagining his fate to happen without the woman. It is suggested in
the previous parts of the song that his dream will turn into real and meaningful when she
trusts her love to him. Otherwise, it is a honky-tonk parade and a melody played in a penny
arcade, noisy and cheap things that are valueless. It means that the man needs somebody else
to make meanings of his life. He is dependent on others, in this case, the woman he is falling
in love with without whom his illusion is worth a penny.

In the same way, Blanche shares a characteristic of being dependent on others, in this case,
especially men. While in It’s Only a Paper Moon, the man depends on the woman in terms of
her approval for his illusion, Blanche needs protection and living. After her husband died, she
was broken and could not stand on her own feet. She began to rely herself on strangers, “ …
intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart with” (p. 128). In
addition, she also seeks security for her sensitiveness against the rough surroundings,
“Blanche, do you want him?” She answers, “I want to rest. I want to breathe quietly again”
(p. 85). Furthermore, Blanche is a wrecked and destitute woman who is lack of sense of
dignity due to men’s exploitation of her sexuality. Therefore, she needs a man to rely on that
will help her escape destitution and support self-image and she sees marriage, with Mitch, as
her only possible way for survival, but it never happened.

Thus, “It’s Only a Paper Moon” is basically about a disillusioned man who is falling in love
with a woman. It tells about his illusion, persuasion or expectation, and dependence on
others. But, those three points are also owned by Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire.
Therefore, the song comes to reveal Blanche’s qualities in the play. It strengthens the ideas of
her illusion, persuasion for others to get involve in her illusion, and dependence on men.
However, it does not hinder the possibilities that Tennessee William may have other
intentions with the song.

Works Cited

Grudzina, Douglas. (2009). A Streetcar Named Desire from Multiple Critical Perspectives.
Clayton: Prestwick House.
Senejani, A. A., Mojgan, Eyvazi. (2012). Blanche Tragedy of Incomprehension in ‘A
Streetcar Named Desire’. Journal of English and Literature, 3 (7), pp 150-153. Doi:
10.5897/IJEL11.038

Jesmin, U. H. R. (2012). A Psychoanalytic Insight into Blanche in ‘A Streetcar Named

Desire’— Psychic Strength from Defense Mechanism. Journal of Literature and Arts
Studies, 2 (3), pp 404-409
Bak, S. John. (2004). Criticism on a Streetcar named desire: A Bibliographic Survey 1947-
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